The stakes are high for CNN, as this debate marks a dramatic departure from historical norms.
The Biden campaign went around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit organization that has overseen every presidential debate since 1988, and negotiated directly with CNN to organize it.
Among the notable changes tonight:
- No audience.
- Candidate microphones are muted when they’re not speaking, and the control room can shut off their microphones if they interject.
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There will be commercial breaks for the first time.
The first half of the debate went off without a hitch. The mute button has not come into play, and the back-and-forth has seemed natural.
From Jeffrey McCall, a professor of media studies at DePauw University:
“The ground rule about muted microphones seemed to work well enough, but it is sad to think that tactic was needed to force a bit of civility on the candidates.The moderators can hardly be responsible for how the candidates use their allotted time, but it was clear that the candidates often wandered off the topic and took off on tangents, particularly with some personal attacks. It was a wise decision by the moderators to just move on to the next topic and not fuel the personal insults further.“
…
There was a dust-up between CNN and the press corps before the debate.
CNN is not letting any outside reporters into the debate hall, not even the pool reporters that traditionally travel everywhere with the president.
One print pool reporter will be allowed to enter the debate hall during the first commercial break to survey the scene.
The White House Correspondents’ Association sent a scathing letter to CNN, noting the importance of having independent reporters around the president at all times.
“That is not sufficient in our view and diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage. The White House pool has a duty to document, report and witness the president’s events and his movements on behalf of the American people. The pool is there for the “what ifs?” in a world where the unexpected does happen.”
CNN responded, but refused to budge.
“CNN’s presidential debate is being held without an audience in a CNN studio and is closed to the press.”
The Hill’s Niall Stanage is in Atlanta to cover the debate.
Like all reporters who traveled to Atlanta, he must watch the debate from a CNN feed in a building across the street.
He sends along some color from the spin room:
The spin room — really more of a spin stadium, at a Georgia Tech basketball arena – saw figures as politically diverse as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Fox News’s Sean Hannity and Trump ultraloyalist Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) in unusual proximity.
Separate worlds were separated by just a few yards. Newsom argued Trump was a danger to democracy on one spot while longtime Trump aide Corey Lewandowski extolled the former president’s purportedly Tom Brady-like ability to rise to the big occasion in another.
But as the clock ticks down, the assembled news media were hungry for an unscripted, potentially viral moment that could reshape a race that has been fairly static so far.
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